Yacht Brokers / Dealers and safeguarding clients money- Time for legislation

Time for a change

  • Total voters
    49
DAKA said:
Back in November 2010 I posted a thread about the dangers of Yacht Brokers and Dealers stealing clients cash

Yacht Brokers / Dealers safeguarding clients cash

I had made several posts prior to that too.

Some forum members kept arguing attempting to tell us that it wasn't a problem.

Unfortunately while the clever dicks were telling us not to worry in Oct 2010 a lady placed her £43 000 sports boat for sale with a Yacht Broker.

the Yacht Broker sold the boat in June 2011

The Yacht Broker kept the cash, ALL of it .

The yacht Broker told the lady the boat was still for sale and in a place of safe storage.

Eventually he went bust anyway in September 2012 and told the lady it had sold but she couldn't have any money.

The Yacht Broker has been jailed November 2013

Has the law given the lady any protection at all or do we need a change in law.

Option 1
no change required

Option 2
All Yacht Brokers to be registered with a current Broker association.
The Yacht Brokers association have a client account that ALL members must use.
All yacht brokers must register and contribute to the FSCS (the compensation scheme that covers banks and Insurers)

Option 3

other


legislation
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I think I am in a time warp...
 
Sell your boat through someone who you know and can trust, if not ask around before you list your boat with them.

You don't always have to use the big boy brokers, I didn't , he didn't run off with my money and he's a Yorkshireman at that! , sorry just trying to put a bit of humour into this. BTW well done Brian for selling my boat.

Merry Christmas to all.
 
jfm said:
+1. We really have done this to death. The poll should be this: If a determined crook/thief/fraudster is obliged by law to put £43k into a client account not his own account, would be?"
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Exactly the point, legislation has not stopped misuse of client accounts in other sectors. eg Conveyancing. There probably is a better way, maybe involving bonding the broker/client account. Its what we do in our area and works well as the bonding qualifiers are stiff to say the least...
 
As ever, Pete you miss the point. This case is nothing to do with client accounts. It was a straightforward case (if there is ever such a thing) of theft. The guy stole the lady's boat and sold it. Against the law. He got caught and is in jail. Can't see any failure of the law there. It could happen in any trade where traders take assets for sale on commission - cars, horses, works of art or whatever. This case makes some sort of headlines because such cases involving boats seem to be a rare occurence.

Not a basis for a change in the law.
 
rubberduck said:
Why can you not use a broker but refuse to tranfer ownership until you have cleared funds in your own account.
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No reason why the final payment cannot be made direct to the seller. For most, though it is more convenient to do it through the client account. The money still belongs to the seller.

However, none of this is relevant in this case. The crook forged the sellers signature to sell her boat and keep the proceeds. So he ends up in jail.
 
They are not a popular bunch, but why not lodge the money with a solicitor & swap the title in the office with transfer of cash at the same time?

John G
 
Jegs said:
They are not a popular bunch, but why not lodge the money with a solicitor & swap the title in the office with transfer of cash at the same time?

John G
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No reason why not, although this is no different from using the brokers client account. There will be a charge from the solicitor whereas the broker will make no charge.
 
A charge certainly, but the law society offer a compensation scheme: a friend of mine needed it.

John G
 
Yes we have done this one to death but here goes again. IMHO, client accounts are not worth the paper they are written on so anyone selling a boat through a broker should insist that the buyer pays the seller directly and the broker's fee should be paid separately either by the buyer or seller. Unfortunately none of this would have stopped the fraud committed by the broker in question so I would also like to see all brokers being members of a professional association and that association setting up an insurance type compensation scheme to which each member broker has to contribute a premium. If anyone chooses to deal with a broker who is not a member of a professional body, then its their look out
 
Deleted User said:
Yes we have done this one to death but here goes again. IMHO, client accounts are not worth the paper they are written on so anyone selling a boat through a broker should insist that the buyer pays the seller directly and the broker's fee should be paid separately either by the buyer or seller. Unfortunately none of this would have stopped the fraud committed by the broker in question so I would also like to see all brokers being members of a professional association and that association setting up an insurance type compensation scheme to which each member broker has to contribute a premium. If anyone chooses to deal with a broker who is not a member of a professional body, then its their look out
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This seems like a sensible solution.
 
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